


Softly

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 23:59:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10524657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: Sleepy cuddles, love confessions, and gratuitous use of Gaelic.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for [ettelwenailinon](ettelwenailinon.tumblr.com).

“I am trying to read, you know.”

“I can see that.” Jamie nudged the Doctor’s arm again. “Doesnae mean ye can’t cuddle me at the same time.” He assumed the most heartbroken expression he could muster. “Or do ye want me to be cold and lonely on the other side of the bed?”

The Doctor sighed dramatically, turned away from his book, and raised his arm. “Come on, then.” Jamie grinned and nestled himself against the Doctor’s side comfortably, snuggling closer as the Doctor wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “Only if you’re quiet.”

“Mm. I’m tired.”

“Well, I’m not surprised,” the Doctor said, patting Jamie’s fringe back into place. Jamie shook him off, but he returned to his fussing after a moment. “We have spent the last few days herding errant children, after all.”

“Aye, and alien ones at that,” Jamie added. “Even human children aren’t that bad.”

“They liked you.”

“They _hated_ me!”

“How else do you explain them sitting on you?”

“They wanted to squash me,” Jamie insisted. He paused, then smirked up at the Doctor. “At least they didn’t decide that I needed a different coloured shirt.”

“That’s not fair!” the Doctor protested.

“And they almost did it, to. They had ye held down and squirming while they coloured ye in with crayons. If Victoria hadn’t arrived when she did -”

“Shush.” The Doctor tapped him on the nose smartly, then chuckled when he wrinkled it up. “I told you, I’m trying to read.”

Jamie fell silent, watching the Doctor put one finger to his lips in concentration, turning the pages faster than Jamie could even read the first paragraph. It was like watching a film sped up to twice its normal speed, almost dizzying, so Jamie settled for watching the Doctor’s expressions, flicking from amusement to satisfaction to – once, very briefly, quickly hidden – surprise. He reached across the Doctor’s stomach to where his shirt had ridden up a little, revealing a bare patch of skin, and started to trace his fingers over it in swirls and circles, feeling the satisfying shiver as he touched a sensitive spot.

He was almost on the edge of sleep when caught himself. His fingers had moved on from their circles to tracing letters, almost automatically. _Tha gaol agam ort_ , over and over again. There was no way the Doctor could know what it meant, surely, but he had never taken that risk before. There was something thrilling about tracing it when the Doctor was awake, and he could not bring himself to stop. _I love you I love you I love you_ , looping across the Doctor’s skin, like he was hoping it would sink in and the Doctor would know without him having to even say anything. Like it was filling him up and spilling out of him, and he had to let it out somehow.

It took a moment for him to realise that the Doctor had put his book down, was rolling over and pulling him close, pushing at him to shift him onto his other side.

“Och, it’s my turn,” he mumbled absently.

“No, it isn’t,” the Doctor replied cheerfully. “You were the big spoon last night.”

“Ye know perfectly well I _wasn’t_ – stop it. That _tickles_.” The Doctor settled his hands over Jamie’s chest anyway. “Och, alright then. Just for tonight.” He felt the Doctor huff out a little breath of laughter against the back of his neck.

“You’re so soft,” the Doctor murmured after a moment.

Jamie snorted. “I’m no’ soft, you’re soft.”

“Well, perhaps we’re both soft,” the Doctor said. “But you’re most definitely soft.”

“Oh, aye, is that so?”

The Doctor did not respond, and Jamie wondered if he had fallen asleep. He had a way of doing that sometimes, of being perfectly awake one minute and deeply asleep the next, and nothing could wake him for hours. A moment later, however, he felt himself being pulled closer, the Doctor nuzzling into his hair and murmuring something he almost missed.

“I think I’m in love.”

He knew what the Doctor meant instantly, knew he meant that he was in love with _him_ , felt the realisation hit him like a physical blow. It was like being dragged under by a wave, all the security he had felt a moment before whipped out from under him, and he was left with no sense of direction, nothing to cling to. He wondered what he should say to that to such a casual confession of love. He wondered if he had been meant to hear. Cautiously, he placed one hand over the Doctor’s. The Doctor took it and squeezed it gently, and he knew then that the Doctor had wanted him to hear.

“Well…” He struggled to find the words for a moment. “Come back when you’re sure, then.” Barely a moment later, he cursed himself for the idiocy of it. What sort of response to a love confession as that? What if he had driven the Doctor away, or scared him off, or -

“Jamie?”

“Aye?”

“I’m sure.”

“Oh.” Jamie considered this for a moment, still trying to wrap his head around the magnitude of it. He had assumed – they were comfortable, _happy_ , certainly, perhaps even settled, or as settled as one could get with the Doctor. This was hardly some spur of the moment fling; they had been together for months now. But the Doctor being in love with him was unexpected, to say the least. He had hardly expected someone like the Doctor to return his affections.

“I love ye too,” he stammered at last.

“I know,” the Doctor replied, eyes flashing with amusement and fondness. “You’ve certainly said it enough times.”

“What? But I’ve never -” _Never said it to your face. Never been brave enough to take you in my arms and kiss you and tell you I love you. Never told you when you weren’t hurt, or not paying attention, or sleeping_. The words hung unsaid between them.

‘I heard you,” the Doctor said quietly. “All those times. I just didn’t know what to say.”

Jamie was blushing furiously now. He had never intended for the Doctor to hear what he had said, had never imagined that he would hear. “Bampot,” he muttered, gently slapping the Doctor’s hand, but a smile was spreading uncontrollably across his face.

“It was nice,” the Doctor said, and Jamie dissolved into helpless giggles. As mortified as he was, he could not help feeling relieved that the Doctor knew, that he felt the same way. It was as if some crushing weight had been lifted from his chest, and he was suddenly light and free, like he was liable to float away at any moment. All his hard-earned understanding of gravity vanished in that moment of giddiness. He rolled over to face the Doctor, taking his hands.

“Well, now that we’ve established that we’re completely and madly in love -” The Doctor’s face lit up at that, and his heart ached at the very sight of it. “Kiss me?”

The Doctor shifted forwards to oblige him, kissing him softly, pulling him closer by the waist, and Jamie smiled against his lips. He gave a little whine of disapproval as the Doctor broke the kiss, trying to reel him in again, to kiss him thoroughly.

“I love you.”

“I know.” Jamie kissed the tip of his nose to make him giggle, the Doctor still gazing at him as if in wonder. “I love you.” It did not feel like a confession this time, or a secret, or even a declaration, simply a statement of an obvious fact.

“I do, though,” the Doctor insisted. “I love you, I love you I love you I love you, and I needed to tell you.”

“I know.” Jamie let himself be rolled over again, the Doctor cuddling close to him, peppering little kisses across his shoulders and neck affectionately. “I didn’t – well, I didn’t dare think -”

“That I felt the same way?” Jamie felt the Doctor smile against his shoulder. “Of course I do.”

With the air between them clear, no longer overshadowed by things they could not muster the courage to say, Jamie felt suddenly exhausted. The Doctor chuckled as he yawned widely, nestling into his pillow and closing his eyes.

“Goodnight, my love,” he said quietly, giving Jamie one last kiss.

“’night,” Jamie managed, letting himself drift off to the calming sensation of the Doctor’s double heartbeat. IT was only in his last few moments of consciousness that he felt the Doctor start to trace words on his skin, as if in reply to his own writing, and he realised what the words were.

_Tha gaol agamsa ort fhèin. I love you too._


End file.
